Q: When do you need a decision in order to be able to hit the deadline of having a functioning border in 2021?

Thompson says HMRC expects to have a functional border in 2021. But it might not be fully optimal from the start.

The sooner there is a decision the better, he says.

Jim Harra, the HMRC deputy chief executive, who is giving evidence alongside Thompson, says that they are also dependent on third parties. They will only start to implement changes when it is in their economic interest, he says.

Q: You have said the “maximum facilitation” model could take up to three years to implement and the new customs partnership one up to five years. Is that still your view?

Broadly yes, says Thompson.

But he says he thinks they could have a functioning border by January 2021.

But foreign ports might not be ready, he says.

He says one problem is that repayment mechanisms might not be in place. That is because businesses would want to wait for a while to see whether reclaiming money (under the customs partnership proposal) would be worth it.

DExEU committee has released the HMRC letter where Jon Thompson said it “would take a couple of years; and some could take around three years” to set up new customs arrangements pic.twitter.com/DdCMCH7bQy

HMRC gives evidence to Commons Treasury committee about Brexit

Jon Thompson, chief executive and permanent secretary at HM Revenue and Customs, is giving evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about Brexit.

At the Brexit committee hearing this morning Hilary Benn, the chair, said Thompson had written to his committee saying that the “maximum facilitation” customs plan - one of the two proposals being considered by the government for customs after Brexit - could take three years to put in place, which could mean it would not be ready at the end of the transition in December 2020.

In an interview on the World at One George Eustice, an environment minister, appeared to confirm the story. When asked if bits of the 2012 Act would be abandoned, he replied:

I think what everybody recognises, and I see this myself in Cornwall, is that there are some instances where you need to effectively have more integrated approaches to different wings of the NHS. And in some areas there’s a little bit of fragmentation that needs to be addressed.

Asked to give an example, Eustice replied:

If you want to join up better your adult social care provision with A&E and other hospital provision as well, you probably need a single piece of oversight over that, and one organisation doing that. So in Cornwall - and this is happening with a number of care plans right across the country - you are getting the NHS working out how they can improve efficiencies by removing some of the duplication. And that’s a positive thing.

Asked why that might requires changes to the 2012 legislation, he said:

There are some elements were it requires them to go to tender when it might be sensible not to go to tender.

The long-awaited report of the SNP’s Growth Commission is due to be published this Friday. More than 18 months in the making, the report was commissioned back in September 2016 to produce a persuasive economic case for independence, after flabby arguments around currency and business were deemed to have contributed substantially to the loss of the last independence referendum in 2014.

n a flurry of pre-publication trails, SNP leader and first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the report “heralds the start of a debate based on hope and ambition about the future of the country, rather than on the despair of Brexit”.

The party plans to hold a series of ‘national assemblies’ this summer to debate the finding with members. SNP-watchers may recall that a similar exercise, branded a ‘national conversation’ was launched in September 2016 to gather views of those unpersuaded about independence, and which had the added strategic bonus of keeping restless members busy whilst the post-Brexit holding pattern continued. It remains to be seen what purpose these latest events will ultimately serve.

Ken Clarke backs John Bercow over 'stupid woman' row

In a point of order after PMQsKen Clarke, the Conservative MP and father of the Commons, defended John Bercow, the speaker, over complaints that Bercow called Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, a “stupid woman” in muttered remarks from the chair last week. Clarke said:

Would you agree, Mr Speaker, if every time a member of this House has felt moved to say under his breath something rather abusive about another member, and action was taken, the chamber would be deserted for considerable quantities of time?

Would you not agree it’s best to leave this to the body that is now investigating it and perhaps hope that some common sense will be applied to this rather overheated subject?